by Wellington, New Zealand (AP) -The first rocket produced in Australia that tried to reach the circulation from the bottom of the country on Wednesday after 14 seconds of the country.
The Rocket Eris, launched by Gilmour Space Technologies, was the first Australly designed and manufactured Orbital carrier vehicle that lifts out of the country and was designed to bring small satellites to the orbit. It was started on Wednesday morning in a test flight from a room port near the small town of Bowen in the north of the state of Queensland.
In videos published by Australian News Outlets, the 23-meter rocket seemed to clear the starting tower and floated in the air before it fell out of sight. Clouds of smoke rose over the place.
No injuries were reported.
The company welcomed the start as a success in a statement on Facebook. A spokesman said that all four hybrid engines ignited and the Maiden flight contained 23 seconds of motor fountain and 14 seconds flight.
Gilmour Space Technologies planned earlier starts of the rocket in May and early this month, but derived these operations due to technical problems and bad weather.
CEO Adam Gilmour said in a statement that he was pleased that the rocket had increased from the launchpad.
“Of course I would have liked more flight time, but satisfied with it,” he wrote on LinkedIn. Gilmour said in February that it was “almost unknown” for a private rocket company to start the orbit successfully during his first attempt.
The company had previously said that it would be a success if the rocket left the ground. The infrastructure of the homepage remained “intact”, the explanation says.
Mayor Ry Collins of the local Whitsunday Regional Council said that the completed start was a “great performance”, although the vehicle did not reach orbit.
“This is an important first step towards the huge jump of a future commercial industry here in our region,” he wrote on Facebook.
Gilmour Space Technologies has private donors and received this month with an Australian dollar scholarship (3.2 million US dollars) from the state’s federal government for the development of the Eris rocket. This was followed by the company’s 72 million scholarship with the government in 2023 the development and marketing of new space technologies in Australia.
The country was the location of hundreds of suborbital vehicles, but according to the Aerospace News platform NasaspaceFlight, two successful starts have already been carried out in the orbit of Australia. The Maiden -ERIS -Test flight was the first Orbital start -up attempt from Australia for more than 50 years.
